Asunder: A Gathering of Chaos by Cameron Hopkin (children's ebooks free online .txt) 📕

him. There would have to be some event that they all attended at once that he –” Kojan stopped short, his eyebrows going up.

“What is it?” Gamarron asked.

“The Blood Games. In the Great Arena. Every fortnight. Those lordling boys love to bet on the fights; it’s a marker of status among them. They always go, but Guyrin isn’t allowed. Too many people in one place. Besides, the bookies would never tolerate him. He could rig the games, and that’s their job.” He seemed thunderstruck, his thoughts whirling. Hooked. Renna felt the thrill of victory.

“You are a master of your craft. Amazing. The things they say of Kojan really are true,” she intoned with a bow of the head. “We will leave you to ponder the matter. You can contact us at the Zephyr’s Whip if you wish to proceed.” Gamarron opened his mouth to object, but she gave him a stern little shake of the head. He needs to stew on it. The wise old savage subsided with a shrug. “Please allow me to right my wrongs before I go, good sir.”

Stepping from his chair on to the surface of his desk, she laid her hand to the ceiling boards. The weathered oak panels shuddered and extended themselves inch by inch from both sides of the ragged hole until they met and fused in the center. Both men watched with interest. Displays of power were such a useful thing; sometimes they were even more useful than the power itself. Stepping back down, she inspected her work. Megda herself would do no better, she decided. The boards had grown straight and smooth, and no one would ever guess there had been a hole there. Of course, the wood was much thinner than it had been before and made as much of corn husk as of oak now, but no one else needed to know that. “There,” she murmured. “All better.”

Steeling herself to the touch of another person, she took Gamarron by the arm and steered him across the room toward the door. He let himself be led, a bemused look flitting across his features. “It has been an honor to watch you work, Master Kojan,” she said with what she hoped looked like a genuine smile. “We will wait for your signal.”

Clearly uncomfortable with that idea, the black-robed savage at her side cleared his throat. She tightened her grip on his arm, and he said nothing. She looked at the little master thief expectantly. He looked at her blankly, and she gestured toward the door.

“Oh,” he muttered, catching on. He pulled the door open for them. “Your pardon, Mistress.”

She favored him with another smile, not needing to fake it this time. She swept out of the room, the future savior of humanity on her arm. Kojan barely noticed. He was too busy thinking about how to steal the most powerful man in the city.

Chapter 8 Right to the Heart of the Thing

“Please understand,” Gamarron said, watching Renna fuss over the still-sleeping Kest. “I cannot involve others needlessly in this business. The danger is excessive already and will only increase as I go. It would be irresponsible of me to bring either of you into it.” He kept himself still in the wingback chair despite the rising desire to pluck at his beard with irritation. This entire quest is slipping out of my grasp.

“Seems to me I’m already in it,” Renna noted dryly. Her hands were busy over the boy’s empty eye socket, dabbing and prodding. A bloody cloth was draped over the footboard of the bed and a pot of water stained pink sat by her feet. “As I recall, you were on your way to being thrown out of that thief’s house with a broken contract before I intervened.” She smoothed back Kest’s hair gently. “Not to mention me saving the life of your young Beast Rider, here. If you manage all your affairs so poorly, I wonder how you even made it off your island in the first place.”

He was horrified and shamed anew each time he looked at the unconscious young Beast Rider. Have I learned nothing after all these years? No control whatsoever? The rage that had gripped him when he maimed the boy still rode in his breast, and it whispered to him in a way that he hadn’t felt since he was a young warlord of the southern wilds of the Black Isle fighting for supremacy among his brethren. And when this woman insists that she must join me, and the girl too, the rage begins to feel like madness. He counted his breaths and kept them bound to his heartbeat, but the peace of the koda eluded him.

“I am and will forever be grateful to you, Honored Mistress. Everything you say is true, and your help has been invaluable. I judged you unfairly, and it seems I know less of Gaia’s Hands than I thought. I am happy to fill my debt to through either payment or favors… but it does not follow that you should become involved in my work. In truth, I do not expect to survive it.”

“You will,” murmured the girl Nira, standing on the far side of the room. “I’ve seen it. We both have.”

This nonsense again. It took more effort than it should have to keep a grimace off his face. “Both of you have spoken of my future as if it were known to you. I am not inclined to believe it, but I would like to hear what exactly you think you know. Will you enlighten me?” Perhaps once they had put their soothsaying twaddle out in the open, he might be able to help them see sense.

Renna opened her mouth to speak – it was going to be something grandiose, from her expression – but Nira jumped in first. “We saw you holding the sun in your hand, and you used it to destroy the monster with red eyes and black skin. He had